Satellite Dynamics and Control in a Quaternion Formulation (2nd edition)

This lecture note treats modelling and attitude control design using a quaternion description of attitude for a rigid body in space. Dynamics and kinematics of a satellite is formulated as a non-linear model from Euler’s moment equations and a description of kinematics using the attitude quaternion to represent rotation.

A general linearised model is derived such that the user can specify an arbitrary point of operation in angular velocity and wheel angular momentum, specifying the a inertia matrix for a rigid satellite. A set of Simulink® models that simulate the satellite’s nonlinear behaviour are described and a Matlab® function is described that has been written to calculate the linear model in an arbitrary point of operation.